1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a zoom lens having an optical path bending member provided in the optical path and an image pickup apparatus equipped with such a zoom lens.
2. Description of the Related Art
There have been known zoom lenses having a reflecting member provided in the optical path that bends the optical path thereby slimming the optical system. Specifically, in a known type of zoom lens, a lens unit having a negative refractive power is disposed closest to the object side among the lens units in the zoom lens (which will be hereinafter referred to as the “negative-lead type”) and a reflecting member is provided in this lens unit having a negative refractive power. In another known type of zoom lens, a lens unit having a positive refractive power is disposed closest to the object side among the lens units in the zoom lens (which will be hereinafter referred to as the “positive-lead type”).
The negative-lead type zoom lenses have advantages over the positive-lead type zoom lenses in that the number of lens units can be made smaller and that adverse effects caused by decentering of lens units such as deterioration in the imaging performance can be made smaller. While many conventional negative-lead type zoom lenses have a zoom ratio of approximately 3, zoom lenses having a high zoom ratio have also been developed recently as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open NO. 2010-160278.